50 Interesting Rules From Around the World

In 2020, Citibank accidentally sent $900 million to lenders of the makeup company Revlon. It's an unwritten rule in the financial world that such huge payments sent by mistake are sent back. That's what everyone thought would happen, but that money was never sent back. When this case went to court, it surprised everyone when the court ruled that the lenders could keep it.

2. Lately, the FBI has been struggling to hire good hackers because of a FBI hiring rule, according to which the applicant must not have used marijuana during the last 3 years. This policy isn't hurting the hackers, but it is hurting the agency in finding capable hackers.

3. The official Yu Gi Oh tournament hosted by Konami instituted a hygiene clause in the rulebook. This allows judges to penalize players with dirty clothing or terrible odor by giving them a loss. Super Smash Bros tournament has also started implementing similar rules.

4. The showrunners of The Road Runner Show had some ground rules in place for the show which they very closely followed. They had rules such as "No outside force can harm the Coyote", "The Road Runner must stay on the road", and "No dialog ever, except beep-beep."

5. In the 1850s, baseball had different rules in Massachusetts than it did in New York. Under the Massachusetts rules, you could throw the ball at a runner, and if you hit them, they were out.

The Kiplingcotes Derby which takes place in England each year is the world's oldest horse race. When it was established in 1519, rules were set in place that it must be run every year or never be run again. Inclement weather has threatened the race several times, causing a single rider to lead a horse around the track to prevent the race from being canceled permanently.

7. U.S. television stations east of the Mississippi River all have call signs starting with a "W" and ones to the west have call signs beginning with a "K". Dallas and Texas has both because of a weird rule when they moved the demarcation.

8. Some researchers credit Ghengis Khan with the implementation of the 'five-second rule' calling it the 'Khan rule.' The idea behind it was that the food prepared for Khan was so special that it would be good for anyone to eat no matter what.

9. Burj Khalifa is so tall that the sun can still be seen for several minutes after it has set at ground level. This has led Dubai clerics to rule that those living above the 80th floor should wait 2 additional minutes to break their Ramadan fast.

10. In the childbirth scene of "Gone with the Wind," only the actors' shadows is shown not for artistic reasons, but to get around the Hays Code rule prohibiting sexual activity and childbirth onscreen. Melanie, Scarlett, and Prissy are shown only as shadows on a wall due to the rule.

Disney was forced to abandon its policy of letting disabled people skip lines in its theme parks, after rampant abuse of the rule by people hiring disabled "tour guides" to skip waiting for rides. These guides sometimes charged up to hundreds of dollars per hour.

12. Most airlines have a rule stating that pilots and copilots cannot eat the same meal to avoid food poisoning.

13. Children in Iceland are not allowed to have names with the letter "C" in them. All names must conform to the rules of the Icelandic language, which does not have the letter "C".

14. The French Bread Law of 1993 outlines specific rules for the sale of bread in France. The rules specify that baguettes cannot be frozen before the sale and must be made fresh with no additives. It even specifies a maximum pH level and bacteria counts for sourdough starters.

15. When Golf was introduced in India by the British during their colonial rule, they were angered by monkeys running onto the course and misplacing their balls. When all attempts to stop the monkeys failed, they decided the game needed to adapt. To do so, they introduced a new rule: "Play the ball where the monkey drops it."

Greenland cannot join FIFA because not enough grass can be grown there to have an official field.

17. North Korea has its own basketball rules. Slam dunks there are worth three points, field goals in the final three minutes of the game are worth eight points, three-pointers are worth four if the ball doesn't touch the rim, and a point is deducted for missed free throws.

18. The rules of Monopoly clearly state that if a player lands on a property and doesn't buy it, it immediately goes up for auction to the highest bidder.

19. In 1475, when Queen Isabella unified Spain and sent Christopher Columbus to discover America, a new piece in Chess was introduced. This piece named the queen could move only one square at a time, like the King. It wasn’t until 1495, when Isabella became the most powerful woman in Europe, that new rules in chess were established, in which the queen was given the power to moves in all directions on the board.

20. If the ancient Persians decided on something while drunk, they had the rule to reconsider it when sober and if they made a decision sober, they would reconsider it while drunk.

Stephen Colbert's father and two older brothers died in a plane crash because the cockpit crew became distracted from talking while landing the plane. A few years later, the FAA created the 'Sterile Cockpit Rule,' prohibiting staff from engaging in non-essential conversation once below 10,000 ft.

22. In 2004, a customer in Las Vegas walked into an In-N-Out and ordered a 100x100. That's 100 beef patties and 100 slices of cheese, which the restaurant obliged as until then they accommodated orders of any size at extra cost. Since then In-N-Out changed its rules and capped the burger at 4x4.

23. The official rules of Ping Pong allow the ball to touch your paddle hand, which includes all fingers and the hand area below the wrist. Players though cannot touch the ball with a non-paddle hand for any reason.

24. "The 12 pubs of Christmas" is a popular tradition is Ireland. Participants go to 12 different pubs in one night, having one drink (most commonly a pint of beer) in each Pub. Participants also follow unusual rules such as, "No sitting in pub 3", "No using the bathroom in pub 7," etc.

25. Air traffic controllers direct commercial flights to fly at "even" or "odd" levels. The general rule in most parts of the world is aircraft going east will fly at odd levels, i.e. 35,000 feet, while aircraft heading west will fly even levels, i.e. 34,000 feet.